This is why there's a suicide crisis

On last weeks Lockdown live we got asked a great question about emotions

Anyways

I went off on one a little (in a non ranty way)

Because if something needs to change pronto in mental health it’s the whole
good vs bad emotions thing..

We kind of make it out like this

Good emotions

Happiness
Joy
Confidence
Positivity

Etc etc

Bad Emotions

Sadness
Anger
Frustration
Anxiety

Etc etc

But the reality is there are no good or bad emotions, they all serve a point in the appropriate situation and amount

Some things are sad – some happy

Some things are frustrating or nerve wracking, some calming and joy giving

Label something bad and you know that it ends up generating more power

I stopped thinking in terms of good or bad emotions years ago and started using useful or unuseful

Mainly because it’s exhausting trying not to feel things

What we resist persists, as they say.

** Just look at what happens with ‘Bad’ foods we only want more

And if there is one thing that really used to do my head in was the whole thing around men opening up.

Men have a huge suicide rate which we generally put down to not opening up about being down

Want more people to open up?

Then lets take away this new scale we seem to have which is

Acceptable VS Unacceptable emotions

Stop creating a society that is unaccepting of ‘bad’ emotions like anger, frustration, resentment, bitterness

Take them off the ‘banned’ list

Its ok to be sad and upset and anxious –
But don’t dare be angry etc that’s not acceptable

Even worse some people put those down as masculine traits and like to suppress their role in life completely

But we are all human beings who will experience the totality of the emotional spectrum

Wholeness (what most people want) comes from accepting not suppressing

And from a place of acceptance pretty much all emotions will stop controlling our actions, and we generate a lot more choice

We go from absorbed in them to observing them

And it all boils down to our relationship with WHAT we feel not HOW we feel

One that can be improved by embracing every emotion

Not just the ones that society seems to have “OK’d”